BBC Video: High winds make for difficult landings at Bilbao’s Loiu Airport, Spain

[Video by BBC News] High winds tested the skills of pilots trying to land at Bilbao’s Loiu airport.

Landing in a strong crosswind can be a very scary prospect for passengers

Winds of up to 65 Kilometres an hour inflicted difficult landing conditions at Bilbao’s Loiu Airport yesterday. Pilot’s braved the tough crosswind conditions to bring their aircraft and passengers on board safely down.

Learning to cope flying in crosswind conditions is part of every pilot’s basic training, but yesterday’s weather conditions seemed a little extreme by any reasonable standards and put all of that training to the test again and again as each plane approached the airport.

Landing in a strong crosswind can be a very scary prospect for passengers, who can feel the plane turning sharply in to the wind direction upon the approach, to maintain direction on the descent on to the airports runway. The stronger the wind, the greater the turn. Known as crabbing, a plane performing this manoeuvre can look as if it actually flying sideways (like a crab walking).

At the very last moment just feet above the tarmac, the pilot will suddenly straighten out the aircraft to line up with the direction of the runway; this can cause the plane to lurch left and right as the wheels make contact.

As the video shows, unless you’re a thrill seeker, try to fly on a calmer day.